17 thoughts on “Bracket Hanyuu – Round 1 – Polls 1-4”

I’m probably crazy for it, but I’m totally okay with either Afro Gunsou or Cruel Angel’s Thesis making it to the next round. I went with the former just because it’s a slightly more fun listen.

Pretty much all of the fripSide tracks in this tourney sorta bleed together to me. Not that they’re bad or anything, but I’d gladly take something like Allegro Cantabile over them any day.

With the Penguindrum connection alone, Grey Wednesday definitely has an unfair advantage for me. It is also just a fantastic and memorable song, thanks in part to it being as simple and straightforward as it is. Additionally, I kinda can’t stand ClariS most of the time and Connect definitely isn’t a song that breaks that pattern.

If that sax build-up in the beginning weren’t as long as it were, choosing between Space Lion and Do You Remember Love probably would’ve been a tough choice. I went with the latter, but eh I’m pretty sure I’m fine with either one advancing.

Voted Afro because, like, who cares? I mean, there are so few tracks in this competition that can be danced to. Not to mention it doesn’t really matter. Actually all jokes aside, this is definitely one the visual helps.

Fripside’s nth offering is pretty okay, but again it’s not even their best Railgun song so it’s no loss if Nodame’s very good OP takes over.

Connect feels generic but Grey Wednesday minus the original ARB vocals is even worse, sorry guys. I mean I can’t imagine anyone voting for it if they haven’t seen Penguindrum… where as I can see people voting for Connect even if they haven’t seen Madoka 🙂

Space Lion and Remembering love…well it’s kind of a hard call for me because I’m equally lukewarm about both. I guess I enjoy Space Lion a lot more but DYRL is also a pretty epic sample of the 80s. I think the problem is that Space Lion feels like BGM and it’s hard to compare that with a big time theme song. I guess I’m not voting for whoever nominated it I guess?

Easy one this time phew!
Cruel Angel Thesis (One of the most impt anime themes of the past few decades IMO)
Allegro Cantabile (Miles ahead in quality and just a rocking good pace)
Grey Wednesday (No particular reason, none really struck me but Wednesday had very emotive keyboard layering.)
Do you Remember Love (Cause it’s the Greatest Love Song in the Universe)

Cruel Angel’s Thesis over frog song.
Allegro Cantabile any day over any fripside song. (Though I like Sagittarius better if we were to pick a Suemitsu & the Suemith song from Nodame Cantabile)
I don’t particularly like the original version of Grey Wednesday and I don’t particularly like Penguindrum but I gotta vote for this one over Claris which really just does nothing for me. If there was some episode in Penguindrum that had a particular strong impact on me I can imagine this song playing in the credits and reinforcing that impact.
Every fiber of my being screams at me to vote for Oboete Imasu ka. It’s an absolute classic (as classic as 1984 can be) and a definitive song of anime. But Space Lion is just so much more interesting and the first Cowboy Bebop song in the competition that I enjoy in any significant amount.

See I like the latter parts. The sax just reminds me of a bad Kenny G track…or good Kenny G track…or just any Kenny G track. When the drums/new world/tribal sound comes in are my favorite parts. But then I like things like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Vd8KSA3RE

Eh a lot of polls now.
Eva sounds old. Frog sounds meh.
Nodame is ok. Railgun sounds too similar to the others
Peguindrum’s song feels very one note as expressed by “______-_________-_________”
Connect is so so.

The last 2 is the slightly tougher choice. DYRL’s melody shows its age but Space Lion’s minor vocal component hardly qualifies it as a song. Nice as background music but its simply a tune.